Results 15,981-16,000 of 21,257 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not appropriate, I am sure Ms O'Donoghue will agree, that the State should subsidise substandard accommodation, or in some cases slum accommodation, and I have seen this with my own eyes. Unfortunately until recently all of the State agencies and some local authorities stood off this issue. Whatever about giving good practice to the Department's people working in the area what about...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I absolutely recognise the responsibilities of others and I do not have any expectation the Department would do this on its own, but nonetheless it is the paying agent with the money. I would like to hear something a little less passive in respect of this particular issue.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Outside of having communications between the agencies there is no dedicated focus or group of people which comes together in any type of formation to address collectively, albeit with local authorities in the driving seat, the issue of substandard and slum accommodation in which, believe you me, many people live.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is not great, is it? From an operational point of view, what does Ms O'Donoghue think of having a coherent inter-agency approach, not on a case by case basis, but in a focused way?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: We know in many cases it is not.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: My colleague is reminding me to speed things up, albeit very politely. It is not acceptable to have people literally living in kips with the State shelling out money and agencies with responsibilities looking the other way. Working on a case by case basis is all very well and good, but to address the issue in any significant way there needs to be a much tighter framework and consideration....

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: This does not happen. I have dealt with such situations more times than I care to remember. The constituency I represent includes the inner city of Dublin and Cabra, and rental limits do not reflect the reality. I can speak about the place I represent and I can tell Ms O'Donoghue categorically the limits put people under enormous pressure and leave them with no option but to make up the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I can accept any of those scenarios, which are extremely plausible. Beyond this being plausible in a general sense, however, the Department has no means of tracking. Obviously, the Department's figures show quite a dramatic drop of over €200 million in supplementary welfare allowance over two years in times that are still extremely tough for people. From a systems point of view,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am referring more to Ms O'Donoghue's sense or belief that "we have got our act together", as she put it, in respect of the primacy schemes, and that more efficient processes in regard to primary schemes had led to this drop. I know there has been some improvement in respect of some schemes. However, I am sure other Deputies might also verify that, increasingly, there is a view among the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I would appreciate it if I could see those figures, for my own interest.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Ms O'Donoghue said the Intreo system is being rolled out in offices across the State. Will she provide more information on this? Where is Intreo located?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What is the total figure for the number of remaining offices?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Ms O'Donoghue is probably aware that the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed, INOU, has been quite critical of Intreo and the slowness of the roll-out of that system. The INOU will tell Ms O'Donoghue, as my own experience tells me, that very often jobseekers find a very disjointed, sometimes very confusing and sometimes misleading - I use the word advisedly - system when they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Ms O'Donoghue said the integrated decision model significantly reduces decision times.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What kind of a time improvement are we talking about?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is very interesting and, again, I would like to see the documentation, if possible. With regard to rent supplement, how does Ms O'Donoghue account for the lack of home visits which has been identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter - 24 Supplementary Welfare Allowance (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I welcome Ms O'Donoghue and her colleagues. I have a number of questions but I would like first to refer to the reduction in SWA payments from €911 million in 2011 to €718 million this year. She sounded that theme elsewhere in her contribution and it is evidenced in the figures. I would like to tease this out because it is evident that far from hardship being lifted from the...

Order of Business (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know that.

Order of Business (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Not agreed. I refer to No. 15, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and Training, Europol, and repealing Decisions 2009/371/JHA and 2005/681/JHA. This proposal deserves debate here. The joint supervisory body of Europol in a published opinion on this...

Order of Business (18 Jul 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: A Cheann Comhairle-----